In recent years there has been a resurgence of mothers nursing (breast feeding) their babies. Since women quite often find themselves in a public setting when their baby needs to be fed, they face the problem of privacy and/or how to be discreet.
The nursing mother usually has several choices. She may choose to attempt to nurse her baby in a rest-room, which are often brightly lit, noisy, and apt to be less than clean. A mother may also choose to return to her automobile, if it is nearby, however this may not be practical depending on the season, that is hot in the summer and cold in the winter, not to mention rain or snow. Another solution is to use a baby blanket or diaper to attempt to cover the baby and the mother to provide some privacy. This solution however usually leads to the baby not having sufficient air or pulling the blanket or diaper off exposing the mother.
There are other times, such as when the mother is in an airport or traveling by air, and in restaurants, when it is not easy to get up from their seat and go to a rest-room, when the mother would like to have a discreet method of nursing her baby. The solutions discussed above all have a myrid of problems associated therewith, some of which have been discussed, many more of which have not.
A solution developed by the present inventor included the use of a shawl having a pleated portion and a tail weighted with sand. The pleated portion was constructed of material having a fiber content of 100% cotton. The construction described above caused several problems. The pleated portion of the shawl would lose its shape and the pleats would disappear after several washings. The sand in the tail would move from pocket to pocket within the tail ending up in one lump in a pocket of the tail thereby causing somewhat of a thud against the mother's back when she tossed it over her shoulder.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a nursing shawl that retains its function despite numerous washing and will not change through use increasing the risk of injury to the user.